Rates from Bankrate.com

Mortgage

Credit Cards

Auto

Angry Orchard's David Sipes Gets Samuel Adams to Try Cider

Written by: Jason Notte03/08/13 - 8:30 AM EST

Tickers in this article:
SAM

PORTLAND, Ore. ( TheStreet) -- When you grab a pint in almost any of New England's pubs, cider sits right beside stouts and lagers as a drink of choice. It's not a beer substitute, it's not there just for beer haters or vegans -- it just is.

It's a tradition that followed the area's British and Irish settlers and one that continues in Irish pubs and roadside watering holes to this day, much as it does in the European countries that spawned it. It was here that Boston Beer's (SAM) Angry Orchard was first leaked to the drinking public surrounding its Samuel Adams brewery in Boston's Jamaica Plain neighborhood in 2011, and here that Angry Orchard began building the base that made it the top cider brand in the country after it was released broadly in April 2012, according to market research firm SymphonyIRI Group .

For Angry Orchard cider maker David Sipes -- who drew from European influence and sources to make the brand's mainstay Crisp, Traditional, Ginger and Elderflower varieties as well as well as the stronger brews in its limited-release Cider House Collection -- that broad cider-loving base represents growth potential just waiting to be juiced. As recent shifts in the brewing industry have uncovered, Sipes isn't the only one who sees cider's untapped power.

According to SymphonyIRI Group, hard cider sales at supermarkets and other stores hit about $90 million for the 12 months ending Oct. 30. That's up more than 65% from a year earlier and outpaces the 5.6% growth of wine and the 13% growth of the craft beer segment in 2011, as well the 1.7% growth overall beer sales in 2012. SymphonyIRI's research excludes sales at liquor stores and discount stores such as Wal-Mart (WMT) , which may downplay cider's growth a bit, but Sipes is getting a whole lot of company from big brewers who want a bite of the cider market.

Hard cider sales still get tossed into the overall beer market and account for 0.2% of sales, according to a report by Nomura Research , which is a sixth of the 1.2% market share held by Boston Beer. Half of cider's consumer base is made up of women, though, compared with only 20% for beer. It also sells for an average $35 a case, according to Nomura. That's well above the $29-a-case paid for imported beers and $33 brought in by craft beer.

As a result, Nielsen ranked Angry Orchard among its Top 10 beer growth brands at the end of 2012. Granted, it grabbed only 0.1% of the market's volume and 0.2% of its share, but just remember that all the cider in the U.S. combined is only 0.2% of the beer market by volume. That was just after MolsonCoors (TAP) and SABMiller joint venture MillerCoors scooped up Minnesota-based craft cider maker Crispin for a reported $40 million last February.